[lojban-beginners] Re: mabla

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 3:29 PM, Luke Bergen <lukeabergen@gmail.com> wrote:
>  Is it good lojban to say "mabla cukta" to mean
> some kind of swear word having something to do with "book"?  Or even better
> "malcku"?

I would interpret it as something like "trashy book". I can't think of
a despective word for books in English, but in Spanish that might be
"librucho".

> I've been wondering how "cursing" would work in a culture neutral language,
> could it really be as simple as "mabla ____" means "____" as an obscenity?
> (or again, "mal" as a prefix in x number of lujvo).

For a word to be obscene, it has to deal with some taboo subject.
These are usually about bodily functions, religion, race, sexual
practices, or some such touchy subjects, it will depend on what a
culture considers taboo. Without taboo subjects, it's difficult to
have obscene language. "mabla" is despective, but pretty mild by
itself, so you need some content relating it with something that must
not be talked about in order to get an effective curse.

> This could make for some very creative cursing, which can be very
> entertaining to hear sometimes.  I don't know why, but the idea of limitless
> creativity when I stub my toe sounds very attractive to me.

Creative cursing can be fun in any language. It's not limited to Lojban.

mu'o mi'e xorxes